Bigotry Determined Webster’s New
World Dictionary defines “bigot” as “a person who holds blindly and
intolerantly to a particular creed, opinion, etc.” and “bigotry” as “the
behavior, attitude, or beliefs of a bigot.”

Police State Thomas Kachadurian’s column might get the facts right but misses the story.

Oppose The Shell Game Is this a
Shell Game? As a Democrat, I support increased taxes on motor fuels and
vehicles to provide funding for our transportation infrastructure.

Sugars On The Way Senator Patrick
Colbeck from Canton introduced a bill and the Senate passed it allowing
schools and Girl & Boy Scout troops to have up to 3 bake sales per
week.

Letters 09-10-2012

Only one letter per reader in a two month period will be accepted. may be edited for length or to correct factual errors. Letters must be signed to be considered for print and a phone number is required for verification. Faxed letters are not accepted.

The War on Women

Personally, the “War on Women” has been an ongoing issue with the Republican Party. This is the dying party of the white dynasty. Since the last census, the white population of this country is becoming a minority.

In fact, I find the Republican stance on abortion and birth control rather fascinating. In some ways it would seem that the “Grand Old Party” would want women to have access to preventive health care - but, wait a minute - that might mean they could get educated and try to obtain upward mobility for themselves and their families.

The Republicans are patronizing, bitter, white people losing their followers. The hollow words of Republicans and their ideological stance on abortion and birth control are archaic. Last week it was made public that a dying cardinal accused the Catholic church of being 200 years behind the times.

The last few months have seen the nuns on the bus who have toured the country defending their ability to care for the poor, the sick and the needy. The Catholic Church is attempting to curtail their activities and place them under the auspices of a bishop because they advise women and families on birth control and help them obtain abortions if necessary.

These are dying patriarchal institutions attempting in their last gasping breathes to retain their misogynist rule over women so they can stay barefoot, pregnant and poor.

Before Rowe vs. Wade, women of means went to other countries to have abortions or had willing gynecologists who would perform D & C’s for women with female “ailments.” The only women who suffered were the young, or those of meager means, so they suffered through the pregnancies, and were stigmatized, or had illegal abortions by well-meaning mid-wives, some doctors in after hour clinics, and self-trained people who understood and sympathized with their difficult situation. Or, better yet, families sent them off to “visit” relatives or they were sent to a home for wayward girls to wait out their pregnancies.

The Republicans are not a party of ideals or ideas - their’s is a party of the wealthy protecting their wealth. It is not inclusive of anyone who disagrees with their backward ideology. It cloaks itself under religious umbrellas that are antiquated. If it really was a party of lesser government, then the place they would begin their crusade would be to stop interfering in people’s personal lives.

Christine Verdon • Northport

Ann Romney’s ‘ick’ factor

I am offended by Ann Romney’s “I just love you women. I love women” speech at the Republican Convention.

Did you ever hear a man say, “I just love you men. I love men”?

It is clear Ann Romney does not identify with women -- she stands outside (of women’s issues) like women of the 1950s and ’60s. As if to say, I am different, I am not like most women, but I love them. Indeed, I just love women. Ick!

Mary Sutherland • Glen Arbor

Women suffer from P.M.S.

No, no, not that P.M.S., but one engendered by national and state Republican legislators. amplified by that paragon of moral authority, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops! It is nourished and spread due to the apathy of women who do not speak up. I am speaking of the Patronization, Misogyny and Sexism started by the titular head of the Republican Party, Rush Limbaugh, with his “slut” comment about Sandra Fluke.

The Republican Party Platform would eliminate a woman’s right to an abortion, even in the case
of rape, incest and yes, even if there is a threat to her life.
Personhood amendments that would make certain forms of contraception
illegal. Bills trying to re-define rape, co-sponsored by Paul Ryan and
Todd Akin, and even crazy comments about the likelihood of pregnancy in
cases of “Legitimate Rape” (Todd Akin). Forced trans-vaginal
ultrasounds, unrealistic waiting periods and on and on in over 16
Republican state legislatures.

The Taliban would be proud! I would hope that women will wake up for themselves, their daughters and their grand daughters.

To paraphrase a very conservative Republican, ‘Extremism in the defense of women’s rights is no vice’ Do something.

Nick LaRose • TC

Wealthy puppet-masters

In case you missed it, you can’t vote Republican any more!

That is, you can’t if you want to vote for someone like Eisenhower, Milliken, or even Reagan -- he raised taxes! Often!

That
party, the Grand Old Party is, as Ernie Harwell used to say, long gone!
In its place we have, in the words of a respected conservative observer
of our politics, an “insurgent outlier -- ideologically extreme ...
scornful of compromise.”

Although
the change was already underway, the Supreme Court speeded things up
with its infamous 2009 Citizens United decision. The conservative
justices may have felt they were doing the GOP a favor by opening the
floodgates for political contributions from longtime Republican
supporters --corporations and wealthy people.

But
the actual consequence has been to deliver the GOP to a small group of
billionaires and strategists whose political ideology and tactics and
vision for America are all at odds with traditional Republican (and
American) ideals.

And
make no mistake: cash has meant control. The Super-Pacs funded by these
anonymous donors are much more than just the sources of those noxious
attack ads. They basically
select and finance the campaigns of “representatives” who have pledged
to follow the Party line. This new well-funded, topdown Republican Party
structure --which also includes think-tanks and legislation mills --
enforces uniformity of ideology and strategy. Compromise is out.

We
all know the stated aims of these anonymous billionaires and their
strategists -- oust Obama, constrict government, cut taxes on the
wealthy, eliminate regulation, wipe out unions, etc. But what are their
unstated goals and values? For clues, look at their campaign of voter
suppression in the swing states:

1)
They don’t like democracy. Too messy and uncertain. And 2) They believe
the ends (winning the election) justify the means (intimidating
legitimate voters).

Ron Tschudy • Central Lake

No hysteria in NRA

Trust
a liberal to label his opposition as “hysterical” (re: “NRA hysteria
unfounded,” Letters 8/27). All that libs can do is name-call.

Anyhow,
the NRA was and is anything but hysterical in its warning about Obama
and the Left being bitterly opposed to an armed citizenry. The fact that
they spent their first-term political capital almost exclusively on
getting Obamacare through does not mean that they have given up on the
basic leftist goal of suppressing the people’s right (guns don’t have
rights) to be armed. Also, Wayne LaPierre’s salary is closer to
$600,000, after 35 years with the NRA.

Lastly,
if you are going to call the NRA a branch of the Republican Party,
which it most decidedly is not, why not point out, far more truthfully,
that the Trial Lawyers Association, now laughably renamed the American
Justice Association, is one of the biggest direct financial supporters
of the Democratic Party? SEIU (can you spell ACORN?) comes next, and the
teachers’ unions, whether their members want their dues used this way
or not.

At least the NRA is patriotic.

Charles Knapp • Maple City

GOP's Medicare disaster

Our
Republican candidates want to repeal Obamacare and replace Medicare
with private health insurance vouchers for all of us younger than 55.
Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan and U.S. Rep. Dan Benishek promise that “nothing
will change for current Medicare beneficiaries or for those between the
ages of 55 and 65.”

They are
lying. For our current seniors, repeal of Obamacare would reopen the
costly “donut hole“ for prescription drugs and eliminate free preventive
care. Those of us between the ages of 55 and 65 would never receive
those Medicare benefits.

A less easily
understood problem -- the Republican plan would stop enrolling new
Medicare beneficiaries just 10 years from now. As with private
insurance, younger beneficiaries cost the Medicare program less on
average than older ones. With no new beneficiaries coming in, Medicare’s
cost-per-person would rise dramatically as the pool of remaining
beneficiaries grows older and older.

Make
no mistake, under the Romney- Ryan-Benishek plan everyone aged 55 or
older will get fewer Medicare benefits and the program will become ever
more dependent on taxpayer subsidies every year.